


now or never

by apaithy



Category: Pentagon (Korea Band), Triple H (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - 365 FRESH, Ambiguous/Open Ending, F/M, M/M, Multi, Suicide Attempt, basically all the trigger warnings for the 365 fresh mv apply to this fic, except there's no explicit violence, it's basically teen, possible major character death, rated mature to be SAFE for like 2 lines of explicit sex mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-16
Updated: 2017-12-16
Packaged: 2019-02-15 09:46:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13028421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apaithy/pseuds/apaithy
Summary: hui still can't pinpoint exactly why he let hyuna and hyojong get in the car that night. sometimes he thinks he might have fallen half in love with both of them, respectively, right then and there, wild-eyed in the middle of the street.





	now or never

**Author's Note:**

> alternative summary: an introspective look from hui's perspective at my take on the 365 fresh mv (aka a modern masterpiece of poetic cinema). i stretched the timeline of the mv by quite a lot (probably) so i could do what i wanted with it, so, like...handwave the fact that this is over the course of about a month rather than about a week. i do what i want.
> 
> this is totally unbeta'd apart from using spellcheck so apologies if there are grammatical errors. it's 3am. title from halsey's now or never, which i listened to several times while writing this.

they make it longer than they should, all things considered.

they lay low, but they're not exactly hiding, the three of them. paying for everything in cash (they've got money to burn, now) helps avoid a paper trail, and crashing in tiny motel rooms rather than extravagant hotel suites keeps them off the radar, but they're probably not that hard to find if you _really_ look. that's what hwitaek thinks, anyway - he's never actually been on the run from the police before, despite a youth full of stealing shit.

he wonders if the others have. he doubts it, somehow. not that he would know; there's an obvious 'before' and 'after' in each of their lives, the divider being the night when they all met, and they never really talk about the 'before'. not with him, at least. hui doesn't know what the fuck hyojong and hyuna might discuss without him when he's not there. they certainly spend more time alone together than either of them with him, and sometimes that bothers him, in an awful, jealous way, when they're tangled up in each other inches away from him, or when they kiss when they think he's not looking. it's not fair, that he's the one that brought them all together and yet they fall in love without him. but then some days, he wakes up late in the day with hyuna curled into his chest, and looks up to meet hyojong's eyes over the top of her ginger hair, and thinks, _this is okay. i can settle for almost, with them, at the end of the world._

hui still can't pinpoint exactly why he let hyuna and hyojong get in the car that night. sometimes he thinks he might have fallen half in love with both of them, respectively, right then and there, wild-eyed in the middle of the street.

 *

"hey, turn that up," hyojong calls from the backseat when a song he likes plays on the radio, leaning forward as far as he can to try and do it himself when hyuna doesn't react fast enough. she's busy sticking her arm out of the passenger seat window to feel the breeze while hui drives, her scarf and wisps of orange hair waving outside in the air along with her as hui drives. they're on the move again, not staying at the same place for more than a few days at a time lest they attract too much attention. it's somewhat futile, given they're still driving the same stolen car with the same plates, but they do it anyway. hui hopes that the truly spectacular amount of likely illegally acquired money in the trunk has put the original owners off reporting it stolen, for at least a little while. really, though, hui knows in his gut they'd keep moving even if they didn't think the authorities were going to catch up to them. all three of them are restless - the running helps to not think about it.

hyuna laughs beside him, and hwitaek glances back for a second to see hyojong sitting forward as far as possible, poking her and looking petulant, but also trying not to laugh as she giggles at him. all three of them know she's only being awkward because she thinks hyojong's cute when he gets grumpy. eventually she relents, and turns the stereo up, starting to sing along almost immediately because she loves it and would have turned it up already had hyojong not asked her to. hyojong joins in once the music is loud enough, and even though his voice is squeaky in a way that's not unpleasant but maybe not meant for traditional singing and he's half-yelling to be heard over the volume, the sound of him and hyuna singing along together happily even in these dire times is a little bit magical. hui can't help but join in, grinning as he does even though he doesn't know the song that well, and hyuna whoops to his right in response. it's no secret hui has the best voice of the three, but with the three singing together, it's better, somehow. magnetic.

 *

some nights, hui wakes in the small hours to hyuna's tears and a damp pillowcase. she does her best to pretend the nightmares don't happen while the sun's up, mostly for herself, he thinks, but she still wakes up sometimes feeling phantom blood on her hands. she still goes deathly pale, rabbit in the headlights when a foreign hand accidentally brushes her thigh in the club.

she whispers apologies into her hands for waking him, and hui holds her close as her shoulders shake, pressing kisses and reassurance into her hair. lately, he wonders maybe if it's his place, knowing she and hyojong have been getting together, but she never tells him not to. it's not fuelled by romantic desire, anyway, even if he is a little in love with her. even if the fact that he's a little in love with her is why.

it's the same reason why hwitaek's heart drops every time hyojong doesn't put on his seatbelt in the car, every time he has nightmares of his own, waking to the memory of hyojong's body splayed out on the pavement burned into the backs of his eyelids. it's so easy to forget that hyojong is the youngest of them, with how confident and self-assured he can be, how world-weary he often seems. occasionally their eyes meet and hyojong looks so lost that all hui wants to do is wrap his arms around him, too.

sometimes he does, when he thinks hyojong's too drunk to remember. if he half hopes that he does remember, well, that's his secret.

 *

hui almost drops the bag he's carrying as he lets himself back into their motel room one night. they've been together for a couple weeks now, and he's known that hyuna and hyojong have been sleeping together for the majority of that, but he's never been confronted with the actuality of it until now - only the aftermath, after the fact. it shouldn't, but it surprises him. of course, surprise is the natural reaction that anyone would have upon coming back from a supply run to find their friends half-naked and making out on the bed when you didn't expect it, but the visual of hyojong and hyuna together has hui stopped dead in the entry way, trapped in his shock. the room is tiny, and he has nowhere to go, doesn't know where to look.

absently, he realises they're staring at him as he tries to get his brain to restart. hyojong is leaning back against the pillows, shirtless but with his jeans still on and looking at hwitaek with an indecipherable expression. hyuna kneels a little way away where she's slipped out of hyojong's lap, in only her bralette with her skirt rucked up around her thighs. god, they're both so beautiful.

after far too long, hui's brain comes back online, the only thought in it that he has to get out of there get out right now. he's chasing some half-baked idea to go and hide out in the car until it's over, to drive off somewhere and get drunk, and is half-turned to leave again when hyuna calls, "hui." and god, he doesn't know how he got in so deep for her, for them both so quickly, but he can't deny her, can't deny her anything, and so he looks back. she looks him in the eye, and there's so much hope in her gaze, but the rest of her face is crestfallen, resigned and disappointed like she's convinced herself he's going to leave. "hui, honey. come here."

he drops their groceries. drops his keys, along with it.

He goes to them. of course he does.

at first, he doesn't know what to do with himself. of course, he does, technically; he knows what's about to go down here, and he's definitely not ignorant of sex, but hui doesn't know where he fits, here, not yet. the two of them are so precious, and he doesn't want to make a wrong move, break the delicate atmosphere that's settled over them, so when hyuna moves over to him on the bed, places a hand on his cheek, he simply rests his hands on her bare waist and his forehead against hers, innocent. after a moment of this there's a sigh of frustration from behind him, mattress creaking under pressure, and suddenly there's a different hand grasping his chin, turning his head to meet hyojong's lips.

surprise fills him for the second time that night, and then hui's kissing back, a hand sneaking into hyojong's hair. hyuna protests "hey!" but her exclamation is distorted by her laughter, and hui's turning to face hyojong properly, licking into his mouth as hyuna's hands chase up under his shirt from behind, obviously trying to get it off of him, and it fits. they fit.

"oh, my god," hyojong whispers when they part, almost reverent, and god, does hwitaek share the sentiment. hyuna presses a kiss to his neck that sends shivers up his spine, and then she's crawling around hui straight into hyojong's lap and reoccupying the other man's lips with her own. hui reckons his face watching them must be a picture, but he can't help that the sight of them together makes his jaw drop and heat coil in his gut, now that he can gaze at them openly, included rather than walking in on something he wasn't meant to witness. they're stunning together, hair messy and teeth pulling at lips, hands grasping at skin. god, he adores the both of them.

he gets a little bit lost in it, evidently, because at some point they stop, but hui doesn't get back out of his head until hyojong is pulling him forward with a handful of his shirt. "this. off." he demands, intense with eyes full of both desire and joy. hui is only too happy to oblige, and then hyuna's lips are on his skin, on his throat, on his chest, on his lips, as if to say 'my turn' and, well.

that night, hui whispers love into hyuna's thighs, presses kisses into the wet heat between her legs. watches as hyuna rides hyojong, kisses them both with passion as hyojong fucks her in his lap. lets hyuna swallow his moans with her mouth as hyojong sucks his dick into his mouth.

they all wonder why it's taken them this long.

 *

after that night, it's different. better. obviously, they all fall into bed together in a much different way than when they used to simply sleep, but it's more than that. for one, they're all happier. hyuna still wakes up sobbing and hyojong still doesn't wear his seatbelt and hui still feels the ache of many punches, still looks around every corner like there's someone waiting for him, but it's easier to deal with now that they're all together.

hyojong lays his head in hui's lap when they sit on the hood of the car at night, hyuna swinging her dangling legs from her spot up on the roof as she tries to get a better look at the stars. she repeatedly points and asks, "dawnie, what's that one?" as the boy laying across hwitaek's legs drunkenly tells her about the different constellations, because _of course_ he knows facts about that kind of thing, or at least is very good at making them up. it's so, _so_ easy, when they get back into the car, ready to pull back onto the road, to lean across and capture hyuna's lips with his. just because. knowing that if they switched seats, with hyojong it would be the same, too.

it's obvious to him, now, looking back. now that he knows it was there, he can see their love for him as well as for each other, can see it in the way hyuna sought out his comfort in her darkest moments, how hyojong sat awake with hui to help him ice his bruises in the middle of the night. in the way hyuna would kiss him on the cheek and call him 'honey', in the way hyojong would be excessive with physical affection as soon as he'd consumed enough alcohol to have a feasible excuse.

they'd thought that he didn't want anything more from them, as he forcibly maintained a distance between them. he'd stayed away because he wanted them and thought they only wanted each other.

it's all awful cliché, but they have each other now, and although he almost can't fathom how much he feels for hyuna and hyojong after having known them a mere few weeks, he does. somehow, he knows the feeling is mutual.

so of course, it has to end too soon.

they get caught.

it was inevitable, really, but somehow, they'd tricked themselves into forgetting they were still running, wrapped up in love as they were.

they go back into seoul, the opposite side of it from hyuna's long-abandoned barbershop. just for the night, to hit up a few actually decent clubs after several days cooped up exploring each other’s bodies. it's a mistake, because they get silly driving through the city and go too fast, and then the cops register exactly what number plate it is and exactly who's inside and it's game over.

they make it to a bridge crossing over the han, and there they get cornered. hui's forced to stop the car, and hyojong leans forward into the front seat, none of them moving to get out. it seems to hit them, collectively, and it's insane, and they've probably become dangerously co-dependent in a ludicrously short time, but their time appears to be up and maybe...maybe that's okay. none of them want to go to jail, and hyuna's wanted for murder, so there's no avoiding it for her, and she'll be away for a long time. hui's the one that stole the car in the first place, and that on top of the various cons and thefts he's pulled in the past means there's no easy way he's wriggling out of this one any time soon, either. even if they could pass hyojong off as simply an innocent they picked up along the way, they'd be abandoning him, and he would likely not be there any more when (if) either of them got out, judging by the state he was in before they met him.

none of them want to die. but none of them want to live the future they'll be facing if they do live.

so they jump, hand in hand.

maybe they die.

but maybe, maybe they live.

**Author's Note:**

> congrats if you made it to the end! i've not posted fiction online for a long time, and although my writing is much improved on what it once was (i believe), this may still be not the best. even so, i enjoyed writing it, so i hope someone else got some enjoyment out of it, too! you can find me on tumblr @ apaithy.tumblr.com if you want; i'm always ready to express my love for triple h so don't be shy to say hi haha


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